Back With My Bat
by HarukoTakkun
Summary: It has only been a few days since Haruko's departure and Naota has matured a little, but only a little. An unexpected arrival has come to the family. Haruko? (First try here. Rating pending.) Eh... What the heck.. I'm continuing...
1. Default Chapter

Mabase, a frequently clouded city. The boy rarely cared of the polluted smoke. Naota. That was the name of the boy of twelve. Always carrying around a bat. Again. Naota was now more careful than ever, wearing a bandage around his forehead, hoping that something extraordinally painful should sprout out of his head. So far these days, no luck, so it was a reminder of the alien that left few days ago.

_I didn't know whether she would come back or not. Both Haruko and Mamimi. I still can't get Mamimi's words out of my mind. "Sayanora Naota-kun..." And then there is Haruko... "No, it'll never work out" She took off without another word... After I said that I loved her, it was never the same again. Ninamori said I changed a little. Said that I am better off without Haruko and Mamimi now. Said that it will make me a better person. Maybe it's true..._

Eri quickly pressed a button for a bitter drink before Naota could even reach out. "Hey! That's my drink!"

Eri, a purpled hair girl, thrusted the can into his palms. "I'm going to be late for practice!" was her reply, and she took off running across the bridge of Mabasee.

Naota could care less now. He forced himself to drink the already over half empty can. "I could care less..." He and two friends walked off to school, Naota fairly ahead of the other two boys.

_Everything is the same now and then. Everyday, Ninamori would steal my drink. I still can't get the taste of beer out of my mouth. I'm always wondering why Ninamori behaves this way, towards me, that is. Why doesn''t she do this to others? Maybe it is just the way my life is..._

"Nao! Dinner!" Naota's father, Kamon, called from downstairs. Normally, Naota would simply walk down the stairs and join his father, grandpa, and Canti, but today was different, as if his personality changed. Monny shouted again, "Naota! I made your favorite gene-spliced soybeans!" Naota gave no reply and remained in his room, plucking a blue instrument he found the day Haruko departed.

At the dinner table, Naota's father actually worried for once. "He hasn't eaten today... I have an idea!"

Naota's grandpa yelled at him. "Your ideas are crap! They never work!"

"Aah... But I know that this one will work."

"I'm telling you to forget about it!" The grandfather jumped his son and broke the table.

"GET OF ME!"

"NOT UNLESS YOU FORGET ABOUT THAT STUPID IDEA OF YOURS!" Canti resumed to eat his own food. "ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT" The words escaped his mouth, but Kamon had his fingers crossed. "Alright! I won't do it!"

The grandfather gave a sigh with relief and continued to eat his soybeans. "Good..."

Kamon gave a quick smirk and shouted out, "Oh, Haruko! You're back from vacation!"

At the mention of Haruko's name, Naota rushed downstairs, only to find his father doing a horrible imitation of Haruko's voice. "Yes, manny! I'm back from vacation! - So how was it? Did you bring me more souviniers(sp?) - Yes! I just came back from Hawaii again so I brought you these " His father's voice was cut off.

"Shut up!" Naota was on the brink of tears. This was an insult to him. A game.

_I nearly cried then. I actually believed that Haruko would be back. But then again, if she was, she would have came in in silence. Or at least came to me first. _A scene flashed back into Naota's mind. _"You're the one that I met first, Takkun" True. I was the one that she met first. Or so I thought._

Here, at the baseball diamond, Naota practiced his batting with a red bat the day after. Each swung was filled with sadness and anger, but always missed the ball like before. Today, Naota brought the guiter he found with him. _Why didn't the 1961 Gibson EB-Zero get pulled out of my head rather than the one I used to hit that giant ball? Haruko would have surely stayed because she envied the power that bass had. The Atomsk. _"Ouch!" A ball was thrown at his head, but Naota had a different theory, that it was a bass that stuck his head. "Haruko?"

"No. It's me." Ninamori entered the area. "Why do you keep doing this?"

"Doing what?" Naota replied.

"You know what. Trying to be like Tasuku, trying to imitate his swing. And bringing that thing." She motioned her head towards the instrument that Naota brought.

"Oh..."

"So, why are you doing this?" Naota gave no reply. Instead, he left towards the bridge. "Naota!" Ninamori ran after the boy. "I'm trying to be serious here!"

"You call asking stupid questions serious?"

"If you want to be that way, fine." She thrusted the guitar at Naota. "You forgot this." Ninamori took off across the bridge. Naota's eyes followed her until he couldn't see her purple head, then he headed towards home.

Again, it was time for dinner, and his father's idiotic shouts wouldn't bring Naota downstairs. "I made fresh gene-spliced soybeans again!" Canti's screen filled with japanese words translated to: You're lying. Those are microwaved from yesterday.

"Psh... At least he can't hear that."

In Naota's room, again, he plucked the same strings over and over. He gave a sharp sigh and suddenly craved for food, so he went downstairs, rubbing his right-eye, and sought to the dinner table. His eyes went wide as he saw a sight he thought that he would never see again. Haruko. Her pinkish hair over her green eyes were hovered over a bag of super spicy curry bread. Naota struggled to say words. "Ha-Ha-Haruko..."


	2. Unexpected Happenings

Naota struggled to say words. "Ha-Ha-Haruko..."

"Yo." On the previous two encounters like this, was usually followed by shouting and questioning. But this time was different. There was no talking of Fury Kuri, or mysterious bumps on Naota's head, or the whereabouts of where Haruko was. This time, it was quiet.

"Takkun?" Haruko slipped some bread into her mouth. Through her muffled voice, she asked, "Don't you want me back? You do love me, don't you?"

The father, Nandaba Kamon, shouted out, "Of course he wants you back. Naota here has been moping around ever sinceLOVE HER? NAOTA LOVES HARUKO?"

Haruko just gave a smile. "Well, he _did_ confess his love for me on the day of my departure, Monny"

"HE-HE-HE CONFESSED?" Kamon's face was shining a bright red of rage. "NAOTA! HOW COULDEh? Where did he go?" Where Naota was previously stand was now nothing. Kamon looked around the room. "And Haruko? THEY CAN'T BE DOING MORE THINGS BEHIND MY BACK!" The man ran upstairs towards Naota's room.

Again, in his room, Naota hid under his covers, hoping that this was all a dream, for he knew that Haruko's return wouldn't be for years, even millenia. He eventually fell asleep after a few moments. Monny bursted through the doors and saw a giant lump under the covers. His face now turned blue as he saw the lump shift slightly, Naota turning to face the other direction in his sleep. "NAOTA!" The father ripped the covers apart, only to find Naota alone, sleeping. And not fooling around with Haruko. "Where's Haruko? Haruko? Haruko?" Disappointed that he found nothing, he dropped the blanket on Naota's face and left the room.

Haruko hid outside the room on the rooftop. "He changed..." Haruko started to pluck random notes on her guitar. Meanwhile, just a few blocks away, a boy, Masamune Masashi, in his old truck could make out the sound of a guitar nearby. "You hear that?"

A second boy in the passenger's seat coud also hear the distant plucking. "Yeah. Do you think it's the Vespa woman?"

"You still into that fairy tale, Manabe?"

"Well, at least I don't have big lips that look like they were stung by wasps! And can't you call me by my first name, Gaku! Gaku! It's not that hard to say!"

"At least I don't have glasses!" Gaku gave a loud gasp. At the back of the truck, Eri broke into the conversation. "Shut up. The plucking sounds familiar..."

Masashi questioned the girl. "How do you know? You never heard it before."

"I did. It's not far from where I usually hang around." Suddenly, the old truck gave out a cranking noise and started to eject smoke out of the engine.

Masashi shouted out, "My truck!" An object appeared before the boy, a machine. Eri gave a small gasp. "I think it's one of those medical mechanica things..."

At the rooftop, the metal bracelet that Haruko bore on her left wrist started to ring. "Takkun!" Haruko swung into Naota's room, only to find the bed empty. "What about" A crash was heard throughout the streets of Mabase, followed by the bang of a guitar that Haruko used to make. "Canti!" Haruko raced out of the room, breaking the window as she jumped outside. And somehow changed her outfit.

A red Canti had just pulled a guitar out of its screen and smashed the little truck into a disfigured chunk of metal. The pirate lords' sign appeared on its' screen in red. Gaku barely made it out of the truck. "It's that robot that Naota controls! Why is it attacking me?"

Eri gave a disgusted look to the boy. "It's not just after you. It's after all of us."

Masashi yelled out, "Run!"

Without hesitation, all three kids ran for shelter, just before Haruko arrived. "I thought I broke your head you stupid machine!" Haruko entered the scene in a bright tie-dye outfit and a hat shaped like a toucan, ready to strike Canti at any moment. She swung her blue guitar towards the head, right when the medical mechanica machine turned blue. Haruko struggled to divert her bat into another direction, but she had put so much force into that swing and ended up denting Canti's head. Canti fell down and scraped his screen in the process, but Naota didn't come out. "Takkun? Canti?" Canti merely stood up with a question mark on its scratched up screen. Haruko asked, "Where is the boy? You should have pushed him out by now!"

"I'm right here..." The voice came from behind Haruko. "What is up with the rainbow pants?"

The alien blushed slightly, hitting herself in her imagination that she questioned the whereabouts of the boy. "Where were you? ... And how come you don't smell as bad as before?"

Naota just countered the alien's remark with a smile, which was then buried into the chest of the alien as he cried. "Where did you go?"

"Deja vu..."

"Huh?"

"Deja vu... You cried on me a few days ago... and asked me the same question..." Haruko raised the guitar up as she spoke the words, unnoticed by the boy.

"I did? But I" _Bang_. You could still hear the vibration of the guitar as Naota was knocked out instantly after contact.

"I still need more of whatever you got inside that head of yours..."

_I cried when I saw her, as if we were long lost friends from years before. I didn't know why I cried now instead of when I saw her earlier... I just wanted her back... But what was strange was that Canti didn't swallow me... The question was, why did he turn into a red machine, and how? I wanna whack at him now... Maybe one at Haruko too... She had to hit me again..._


	3. Niichan

Naota awoke with a surge of pain throbbing in his forehead. "Itai! Itai itai itai itai itai..."

"Awake I see..." The voice came out of nowhere as it from a broken stereo at first, but gradually faded into the normal voice of the speaker. "Nothing. Yet." Haruko fell onto Naota's bed with such force, it sent the boy jumping up and knocking against the top bunk of the beds, slightly enlarging the bump on the forehead.

"Haruko?" asked Naota, "What happened?"

It took a few moments before the alien would respond. "I whacked you in the head."

"But... why?"

"You don't need to know. I mean, it's pretty obvious why..."

Flashbacks of last night's happening flooded into Naota's mind. Canti. The truck. Haruko. The... "Your guitar!"

"Eh?"

"You struck me with your stupid guitar!"

"Wrong."

"You gave me this fricken bruise!"

"It's not a bruise."

"Err... Why did you come back?"

"It's more of a giant pimple, you see..." Haruko was sort of too caught up in the moment to realize that Naota had changed the subject. "If it was a bruise... whatever that is... then it would be all black because of all of those strings in your brain... So it would be more of a giant pimple because... well... it just looks like one..."

Naota turned around at those words. _How can she just be like this? _He then spotted the blue bass lying under the window. Thoughts and choices invaded his mind at that moment. _Attack her or leave... Break the guitar so none of this will ever happen again... Give her one of her own bumps to worry of... Break the guitar... Break the guitar... Break the guitar! _The boy involuntarily walked towards the blue bass and picked it up as if it were a fragile piece of treasure. _Break the guitar..._ As if a demon or spirit of some sort was controlling him, Naota raised the guitar as Haruko did the previous night.

"Naota?" A new voice filled the now silent room. "Naota!" The door swung open, revealing a boy who looked similar to Naota, but older. "Hey!"

Naota could not utter a word out as far as he knew it. The sight of this boy was almost too much to bear. "Tasuku..." "

What's that on your head?"

"When did you come back..."

"It looks kinda bad."

"Why did you come back..."

"Need some ointment or such?"

"Why did you leave Mamimi with me..."

"I got this from America! My girlfriend told me it was called neo-something... Neopollen... Neorin... Ahh well...I still can't read english yet."

"Why did you leave Mamimi with me.."

"Here. Try it." The older brother threw a yellow object at Naota. "Catch!"

"Nii! Why did you leave Mamimi with me?" The yellow object struck Naota on his bump, then landed on the floor.

"... Why bring up Samejima all of a sudden?"

"Why did you leave her with me?"

Haruko interupted, just noticing that Tasuku had enter the room. "Oy! You're that guy I saw in that picture!" Tasuku stared blankly at Haruko, not knowing she was lying on the bed when he entered. He stared at the green eyes of the alien, drawn to it as if hypnotized.

Naota noticed the eager look in Haruko's expression. "Don't you dare strike him with that damn guitar of yours!"

"I'm not going to hit him with _my _guitar... I'm going to use yours..." Out of the blue, Haruko pulled out a guitar, the one Naota had that combined when he emerged from Canti's screen. Tasuku didn't notice anything until Haruko was a mere two feet away. "I just have to have your head..." Naota wanted to hurt Tasuku for leaving Mamimi here alone with him, but he didn't want Haruko to do it. Naota wanted to do it himself.

Just before the bat could reach its target, a new one emerged out of nowhere. Haruko was slightly shocked. "Takkun?"

Tasuku then broke out of his trance and saw his little brother laying on the floor. "Naota?" He stared back and forth between Naota's crumpled body and Haruko. "D-Dad! Grampa! You should come see this!" Kamon and Shigekuni rushed upstairs and into the boys' room. Shigekuni cried out at Haruko. "

Haruko-san! Let us continue our conversation! ... kuri kuri is like this..." He started to make small motions with his hands. "Around there and..." Shigekuni was too stupid to notice or care for the Naota that lay on the floor.

"Tasuku. What did you do?"

did nothing!"

"'Cause I have been dying to smack him in the head ever since those manga scenes on the last episode! Anime just sucks with it. Very stressful."

"Manga? Anime?"

"Just like your brother... I can't believe that you two do now know what anime is..."

"... Right..."The elder brother bagan to think that his fatherhas gone mental.

"So, how was the plane ride home?"

"I'm not home. Just dissed baseball for a few. I brought my girlfriend! She's somewhere..."

At the baseball diamond, a blonde girl screams at a strange boy, Gaku, as he pokes at her hair. "Who has yellow hair like this?"

Masashi cried, "Americans! Aren't you suppose to be smart?"

The argument was not understandable to the blonde girl, for she didn't understand a single word of japanese. Luckily for her, Gaku and Masashi were too into their conversation to notice her run away.

"Since when did you get yourself a girl?" asked the father.

"Didn't you see the picture I sent you guys?"

"Picture?" chimed the two elders.

Haruko chipped in. "It said 'I got myself a blonde gal!', right?"

Kamon and shigekuni were still confused. "Blonde gal?"

Naota awoke again with a start. He hopped up and rushed to the window and searched frantically for the instrument. "The guitar! Where is it?"

Tasuku asked, "Since when did you get a guitar? You don't even know how to play."

"Shut up! Where is it..."

"Which one?" Haruko asked as she held up the two instruments. "Yours or mine?"

"Gimme that!" Naota rushed over to Haruko and jumped up as Haruko held both instruments in the air.

"Still short, eh?"

"Gimme those!" Naota continued jumping for the guitars.

"What's in it for me, Takkun?" The alien smirked as she watched Naota leap up into the air.

_She is making fun of me... How could she do that, I would wonder. She was just older than me by 7 years... It's not enough to boss me around. _

Naota shut his eyes and leaped with his strength in to the air and grabbed one of the instruments. With his eyes still shut, He lifted his knee and jammed the handle of the instrument against it, breaking the handle off. He smirked with victory and opened his eyelids. "Ha! Now you can't hit me anymore!"

"What are you talking about, Takkun?" Naota stared at Haruko in disbelief. How could she remain so calm when he had just broken her beloved bat? He couldn't figure it out, until he looked down at his hand. The handle, just about the same as any other handle would be. He looked up and spotted white. Now, at his feet, was the conjoined instrument. His own guitar. _His _sign of maturity.

"Takkun..."

"What? Isn't it enough that I broke my own bat?"

"No. I just need to pull that out of your head." Haruko motioned towards his forehead. Tasuku couldn't believe his eyes. "Naota! You're growning a horn!"


	4. Another Canti

Tasuku then began prodding on the wound. "Hard as a rock..."

Haruko jumped in and pulled Tasuku away from Naota. "I'll have to pull it out sooner or later ya know."

"Forget it! It will just attack us like that many stupid machines in the past!"

Haruko just smirked. "But what if it is a new guitar? Wouldn't that be surprising..." She plopped down onto the bed and layed there. "If it is a robot..." - her eyes flashed open - "then..."

Naota became curious. "Then what? Then what, Haruko?"

"I don't know." Haruko merely shrugged off the idea and sat up staring at her feet. "I sure got your attention, didn't I? You are so easy..."

Tasuku was clueless of what they were talking about now. _Manga? Anime? Horns? And now they are talking about robots?_ Tasuku would wonder. _Robots emerging out of his little brother's head... That would be a sight to see... _The older brother dozed off in the middle of the room.

Meanwhile, outside the Nandaba family's bakery, Amarao hid behind Haruko's vespa, not a good place to hide in the first place. The childish man had red hair and blue eyes, eyes hid beneath giant eyebrows. Actually, the eyebrows are fake. The giant 'eyebrows' are just slices of nori (a kind of seaweed, sold in convenient packages of dried strips). "Kitsurubami?"

"Yes, sir?" The female alien henchwoman was hiding inside a Volkswagon Rabbit, owned by Amarao. Kitsurubami is tan with short blonde in a blue uniform of the Bureau of Interstellar Immigration. "Do you require anything at the moment?"

"Sir."

"Excuse me?"

"Sir."

"Look here. I don't know what you are talking about. What do you want?" The henchwoman was starting to get slightly irritated.

Amarao gave a huge sigh. "Get me a soda." He started to wriggle his 'eyebrows' a little.

Kitsurubami was staring at the distractions. "Those eyebrows..."

"What did you say? Kitsurubami, it it? You left the machine on."

"Oh..." The girl blushed deeply. "What was it that you want? Soda?" There was no reply this time. "Sir?" Beep. Kitsurubami blushed even deeper. "I turned it off somehow..."

Inside Naota's room again, Haruko stared at Naota. Naota was too busy poking the horn that has sprouted out of his forehead. "Itai..." He winced in pain with every touch he could manage. "Itai..."

"Are you just going to do that all day?" The voice came from Haruko. "It won't do you any good. It would be best if I pull it out now, otherwise, you'll just have to suffer the pain until it comes out by itself..."

"Can you just pull out a new guitar out of my head? You know. Like that time you used that hat and reached into my brain."

"I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"I lost that thing that day. Forgot where I put it."

Naota fell to the floor. Apparantly, someone had installed a trip wire in his room. "Ouch... Eh? A wire..."

"Hmm? It's that guy with the slingshot..."

"What are you talking about?"

"Check outside for yourself." Haruko walked over to the window and pointed to the direction.

Naota stared out the window and spotted a Volkswagon Rabbit. "Isn't that the woman that shot a rocket at us or something a while back?"

"Oh yeah! That war over me!" Haruko chuckled. "That was pretty amusing that day. I remember her saying something about 'blue'..."

Naota opened the window and stepped on the window pane. "I'm gonna go ask them what's up." The boy prepared to jump but was pulled back by Tasuku.

"What are you doing, Naota?" yelled Tasuku. "Why can't you just take the stairs?"

"Erm..." Naota could now feal his face heat up. _Stairs! Why didn't I think of taking the stairs? Stupid stupid stupid... _Naota jerked his arm away from the older brother. "I'll take the stairs..." The boy rushed down the stairs and outside, met Haruko and Tasuku.

Haruko stared at Naota. "That took you longer than I expected."

Naota glared at the alien then noticed his brother. "Why did _you_ jump out of the window?"

"I'm older." replied the brother. "I can do more things than you, can't I?"

Naota was now filled with rage. He now, again, was treated like a child. Just then, the injury that Haruko caused earlier throbbed with a pain unbearable to the boy. "Haruko! What's happening?" The injury grew larger and started to sprout out of Naota's forehead. First came a left hand of no particular color, followed by a right hand. A head emerged, blank it the screen.

Haruko could only gasp at the sight. "A medical mechanica..." The alien smirked and let the robot continue its process of escape.

The robot used its arms to push its way completely out of the boy's head. It landed a fair distance away from the group. As it landed, color started to appear. Black. It was like a new Canti, with the exact same features and qualities. Other than the color.

Naota screamed in agony at the pain surging through his head after the robot leaped out. Tasuku could only watch his little brother suffer through the scene. Not once had he seen anything like this. The older brother yelled, "It's an abomination!"

Haruko was nowhere in sight. She had raced off, flying on her original bass, wearing that ridiculous rabbit costume again. Naota watched the alien disappear behind the robot. _This was the woman I kissed... How can this be the woman that I fell in love with? The one who always strikes me out... _"Canti! Get over here!"

The original Canti ran out of the bakery. The black robot also came forth. The two robots faced each other, already in position to assault each other. The original Canti then leaped behind Naota. A large mouth with many fangs swallowed the boy whole. Tasuku could only scream at the now Red Canti machine. "What did you do to my brother? Spit him out!" The hopeless boy began pounding on the red machine, being no threat whatsoever.

Haruko darted back and pushed the older brother away. "Get out of here! It's too dangerous for someone like you being around here!" The alien leaped off the bass, raised the instrument up, and swung the instrument against the black robot. The black robot easily dodged the attack and aimed for its new target with a gun that came out of nowhere. Haruko could only gasp at the gun before the black Canti fired at the alien. Blood splattered throughout the air from Haruko's shoulder. The would was the size of half a bullet, for it only scraped against her left shoulder. Luckily for Haruko, her blood blinded the black robot's screen, giving the Red Canti enough time to damage the back of the black robot's head.

The Red Canti then spit Naota out and reverted back to a blue machine. Tasuku just watched the disgusting sight of his brother laying on the street with the smell of a toilet. Canti resumed his daily chores inside the bakery as Haruko picked up the damaged black robot with little effort. "You think we can make this one work around here too, Takkun?"

"Sure. Whatever." Naota struggled to stand up and walk back into the bakery.

"Where are you going?" asked Tasuku.

"To take a bath. What did you think I was gonna do? Walk around smelling like a toilet?" Naota trudged inside with fustration. "What a stupid question..." Naota muttered under his breath.

Haruko gazed at the black robot. "So? How about working for me?" The robot nodded without hesitation.

Tasuku could only question the alien. "How can it just work for you like that?"

"I just have a gift." replied Haruko. "We havn't really met yet. Haruhara Haruko at your service!"


End file.
